The present invention generally relates to the field of computerized process control networks. More particularly, the present invention relates to supervisory process control and manufacturing information systems. Such systems generally execute above a control layer in a process control network to provide guidance to lower level control elements and/or field devices such as, by way of example, programmable logic controllers.
Significant advances in industrial process control technology have vastly improved all aspects of factory and plant operation. Before the introduction of today""s modem industrial process control systems, industrial processes were operated/controlled by humans and rudimentary mechanical controls. As a consequence, the complexity and degree of control over a process was limited by the speed with which one or more people could ascertain a present status of various process state variables, compare the current status to a desired operating level, calculate a corrective action (if needed), and implement a change to a control point to affect a change to a state variable.
Improvements to process control technology have enabled vastly larger and more complex industrial processes to be controlled via programmed control processors. Control processors execute control programs that read process status variables, execute control algorithms based upon the status variable data and desired set point information to render output values for the control points in industrial processes. Such control processors and programs support a substantially self-running industrial process (once set points are established).
Notwithstanding the ability of industrial processes to operate under the control of programmed process controllers at previously established set points without intervention, supervisory control and monitoring of control processors and their associated processes is desirable. Such oversight is provided by both humans and higher-level control programs at an application/human interface layer of a multilevel process control network. Such oversight is generally desired to verify proper execution of the controlled process under the lower-level process controllers and to configure the set points of the controlled process.
One of many challenges facing the designers/managers of often highly complex, distributed process control systems is to properly load/maintain required software onto each one of a plurality of supervisory-level computers executing a portion of a distributed application. A challenge faced by the managers of such systems is the potentially significant distances between the various computer devices (e.g., personal computers) executing the various portions of the distributed supervisory process control application. Another challenge to the software loading process is the sheer volume of executables that are transferred to the distributed computer devices. Yet another complication is the potential existence, in cases where a service pack is to be deployed, of previously installed components on the target personal computer systems.
Keeping track of the operation of individual distributed components on an application loaded upon computers located throughout an industrial plant is another challenge faced by system administrators. Known systems provide centralized alarm capabilities that are monitored in a central control room. However, even when alarm conditions are not met, an administrator still has an interest in determining how installed application objects are performing on a distributed system, and to take remedial action if needed.
In accordance with the invention, a centralized diagnostics management tool facilitates centralized monitoring of distributed components of a supervisory process control and manufacturing information application. The centralized diagnostics management tool includes a diagnostics management console shell that is customized according to a set of software modules that interface to data sources to populate views supported by the console shell. The console shell includes a set of view templates including controls for manipulating graphically displayed representations of data rendered by the distributed components. The console shell also includes an interface for exchanging requests and data with an extensible set of software modules that provide data links to ones of the set of distributed components. The personality of the interface is driven by a set of software modules that submit requests to the distributed components to access exposed attributes corresponding to the operational statuses of the components. The software modules also define the customizable portions of the view rendered by the console shell.